Lost in this Corner
by Mara Greengrass
Summary: "At least," Ivan thought, "the little bugger was alive"-sequel to "A Merry Meeting Be Wished


Title: Lost in this Corner

Fandoms: Stargate Atlantis/Vorkosigan Saga (Lois McMaster Bujold)

Prompt: Ivan shows members of the Stargate Atlantis team around the capital.  
Rating: G  
Word Count: 970  
Summary: "At least, Ivan thought, the little bugger was alive."

Notes: Sequel to a href=" /works/55020""A Merry Meeting Be Wished",/a which was written for last year's Multiverse :) I was hoping this would be longer, but I ran out of time. Hopefully I can write more someday.

Ivan sighed as he trotted through the palace, freshly returned from an offworld assignment. He'd gotten a message from his mother that politely and obliquely said something about Miles getting in trouble again, so presumably this urgent call from Gregor's assistant had something to do with that.

At least, Ivan thought, the little bugger was alive. Right? Surely someone would have mentioned if he was dead or badly hurt.

Somehow he didn't find himself entirely convinced and he worried all the way to the room he'd been sent to by ImpSec.

He screeched to a halt in front of the room when he found himself confronted by four of the biggest agents he'd seen in years. He didn't know any of them, which saved the small talk as they checked his identity, but didn't reassure him in the slightest.

As he entered the room, he ignored everything and everyone else long enough to find Miles in earnest conversation with a man with spiky hair. Miles looked up long enough to give him a vague wave.

Hands on his hips, Ivan snorted. Typical. He was worried and Miles was plotting. Turning to Gregor, he bowed.

Gregor, damn him, knew exactly what Ivan had been thinking, by the grin on his face. "Ivan, good to see you."

"I'm glad to be home, sire," Ivan said absently as he looked sideways, finally noticing the other occupants of the room. Besides several more of those very scary security personnel, there were four...others: the one talking to Miles, a large man with braided hair, a shorter and slightly rounder man clutching some kind of electronics, and a...really gorgeous woman.

"Miles has brought puppies home again, hasn't he?" he said without thinking.

Gregor covered his mouth as the two of the strangers turned and stared. "Well, yes, you could say that. Although I probably wouldn't have."

"I'm sorry," Ivan babbled at the gorgeous woman. Oh, and the man. "It's just that my cousin is rather prone to bringing home interesting guests and uh..."

The woman smiled, tilting her head in his direction. "I believe I understand. No offense taken."

Ivan sighed and Gregor cleared his throat, causing everyone's attention to turn to him. "Miles, if you could..."

Miles and the other two men stepped a little closer and Gregor waved a hand at Ivan. "Lord Ivan Vorpatril, I'd like to introduce you to our new guests. They're, uh, a little misplaced and I'd like you to take them on a tour of Vorbarr Sultana before their appointment with a great many quantum physicists."

"Certainly, sire." Ivan bowed slightly again, definitely confused now.

Miles finally spoke up. "And what Gregor means when he says misplaced is that they're from another universe."

"Right." Ivan blinked a few times, but really, it wasn't ithat much/i weirder than any of Miles' usual escapades.

Miles grinned at him. "Good man. Ivan, let me introduce Colonel John Sheppard." The man he'd been speaking to smiled. "Next to him is Specialist Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagen, and Dr. Rodney McKay."

"Pleased to meet you," Ivan said automatically.

"Really?" Rodney asked with what seemed to be considerable skepticism.

"No," Ivan said, "but it's the sort of thing my mother expects me to say at times like this."

Gregor twitched and Miles rolled his eyes, choosing to not rise to the bait. "They helped me get off Jackson's Whole when ImpSec managed to spectacularly fail at the task."

"I'm fairly certain General Allegre will be offering me his head by the end of the day. I'm tempted to accept it."

"Don't," Miles said. "The Dendarii were once unable to get me off that planet safely, so ImpSec hardly had a chance."

Ivan rubbed his face. "What were you-no, wait, even if I have the clearance, I don't want to know what you were doing there in your capacity as an Auditor."

"He seemed to be trying to get himself killed," Teyla said.

"Oh, he does that all the time," Ivan said with a shrug. "Well, not as much lately, but apparently it takes time to get over the need to be an idiot."

Teyla glanced at her companions and looked like she wanted to say something, but chose not to.

Miles was just plain offended and he scowled at Ivan. "If we're done insulting me?"

Ivan smiled beatifically. "Welcome to my world, Miles. Now, you needed me to take them on a tour of the sights?"

hr

The lightflyer was on its way to one of the many incredibly boring sights of Vorbarr Sultana and Ivan asked if there was anything they needed to know.

Col. Sheppard ("Please, call me John. We're not even vaguely in the same chain of command.") said they'd been given an abbreviated galactic history. "It's, ah, rather a different course of events."

Rodney rolled his eyes. "Way to understate, Colonel. In fact, I estimate at least a thousand different points of divergence that could-"

Ivan knew the type and hastily interrupted. "So, you got hijacked by my Cousin Miles, huh?" All four of them twitched and he stared. "Literally? I actually meant that figuratively, although I guess I should know better."

"Does he make a habit of hijacking space ships?" Ronon asked.

"Not exactly hijacking." Ivan squirmed a little. "It's just that things get out of hand when he's involved and the next thing you know he's the admiral of an entire mercenary fleet."

Teyla sighed. "I think I know what you mean."

"I've never done that!" John said.

"Neither have I!" Rodney said.

Crossing her arms, Teyla raised an eyebrow at them.

"It was just the one star system," Rodney muttered.

"One alien race awakened?" John tried, with a smile lurking on his lips.

Ivan flung himself back against the seat and covered his face. "Oh god, I'm in soooo much trouble, aren't I?"

-end-


End file.
